Why are TLDs so special? Why are the few known private TLDs (com/net/edu/gov, etc) so important, how are they so special that it is valuable to society to keep them limited?

I think the everyday person doesn't even understand that google.com is a little endian hierarchy.

Somebody forces you to click on bestbuy links and shop in their stores?

Are they in the room right now?

I am anticipating exciting new phishing attempts from customers of unscrupulous registrars on everything from apple.comp to zoom.uss

I doubt it's that easy to pull something like that off. And besides, people fall for phishing scams even when the domain name isn't even close to what they're trying to imitate.